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When they listened intensely, kept silent, and held their breath, their hearts took to beating the drums of their ears, and when a sudden breath or sigh escaped it seemed as if some African monster were approaching from the surrounding gloom. "Is that you, Simkin, that's breathin' like a grampus?" asked Molloy, after a long pause.
If I did, they'd not only laugh at me, but they'd soon rouse me up with their spears." "I'm not so sure about that, Simkin. Arabs are accustomed to go on their own knees a good deal in public. It is chiefly Christians who, strange to say, are ashamed to be caught in that position at odd times. But I speak not of ceremonies, but of realities.
It may be said to have come in with a rush, when, towards evening, the door of their prison once more opened and Simkin with Stevenson were ushered in together, both clothed alike in an extemporised sack-garment and short drawers, with this difference, that the one wore a species of felt hat, the other a fez.
It was just at the moment that Moses and Simkin made the dash from their place of concealment, so that they actually leaped, without having intended it, into the very midst of the reinforcements!
The cheer of the Berkshire men and others who witnessed this feat was heard to rise above even the yells of combatants, the shrieks of the wounded, the rattle and crash of fire-arms, and the general turmoil and din of war. In one of the working parties that were out when the assault began was our friend Moses Pyne and his comrade Rattling Bill Simkin.
Perhaps it was the excess of tremulo induced by the motion of the train! At all events it fell flat, and, when finished, a hilarious loud-voiced man named Simkin, or Rattling Bill, struck up "Rule Britannia," which more than made amends for the other, and was sung with intense vigour till the next station was reached.
What you want now is encouragement as to the future and advice as to the present. Shall I give you both just now, or shall I wait?" "`Commence firing!" replied Simkin, with a half-jesting smile. "Well, then, as to encouragement," said Stevenson.
Now, as to advice: do you really want it?" "Well," replied Simkin, with a "humph!" "it will be time enough for you to shut up when I sound the `cease firing!" "My advice, then, is that you go down on your knees, plead guilty straight off, and ask for grace to help you in your time of need." "What! go down on my knees here before all them Arabs?
A slight laugh from several of those who heard him greeted the information, but he probably did not hear it, for next moment his charger cleared a low bush in a magnificent stride, and in a few seconds man and horse were lost to sight in the bush. "More need to sign his will," remarked Simkin, in a somewhat cynical tone. "He has done that too," said Armstrong.
"The short an' the long of it is, that I see'd from the first the on'y way to humbug them yellow-faced baboons was to circumwent 'em. So I set to work at the wery beginnin'." "Ah, by takin' a header," said Simkin, "into one o' their bread-baskets!" "No, no!" returned the seaman, "that, I confess, was a mistake. But you'll admit, I've made no more mistakes o' the same sort since then.
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